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What's the story?
Barcelona and Argentina captain Lionel Messi was honoured with the 2019 Balon Educativo de Scholas, an award presented by Pope Francis' Scholas Occurrentes foundation, as a result of him receiving the maximum number of votes from children across the globe in a poll.
In case you didn't know...
Pope Francis' Scholas Occurrentes Foundation, present across 190 countries, has more than 500,000 institutions under its umbrella.
It conducted a vote earlier this earlier, that aimed to highlight sports values among football players participating in the Copa América and the criteria for the winner was that he should be a player who displayed the characteristics of the Scholas Foundation, such as effort, honesty, identity, resilience, respect, solidarity, and teamwork, throughout the tournament.
The heart of the matter...
Messi was voted as the player most deserving of the Balon Educativo de Scholas following a third-placed finish with Argentina at the Copa America. As per Marca, The 32-year-old obtained 34.38% of the votes for the prize, beating the likes of Peruvian pair of Edison Flores(15.56%) and Pedro Gallese(11.28%) as well as the tournament's MVP Dani Alves(10.5%) to the honour.
He was presented with the award by the world director of the Pope Francis' Scholas Occurrentes Foundation, Jose Maria del Corral, while he was also accompanied by Barcelona vice-president Jordi Cardoner at the ceremony held in Barcelona itself.
The award was a handmade football or ragball, that was prepared by boys from the Chicomo community in Mozambique. In addition to this, the ball was blessed by none other than Pope Francis, a week prior to the ceremony.
Though the five-time Ballon d'Or has won a plethora of titles and individual honours, this one of a kind trophy will definitely have a special place in his collection, because of the love of the children who made it and the holy blessings of Pope.
What's next?
Messi has missed the initial phases of the season due to a calf injury. In his absence, Barcelona have produced mixed results so far, with one win, one draw and one loss in the three LaLiga fixtures.
He is expected to be back in the squad after the international break.
